


Loss

by YumeArashi



Category: Assassin's Creed
Genre: Gen, Rape/Non-con References
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-09
Updated: 2013-03-09
Packaged: 2017-12-04 18:15:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 387
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/713596
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YumeArashi/pseuds/YumeArashi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Helplessness and grief make for heavy fetters, as Claudia Auditore knows all too well.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Loss

**Author's Note:**

> Set during early Assassin's Creed II.

It always feels to Claudia as though the world has shrunk.

She can admit that she grew up spoiled, surrounded by a doting father, protective older brothers, a sweet younger brother, and a loving mother.  She can admit that she was shallow and vain, concerned only with shopping for pretty things and flirting with her would-be lovers.

It has all been taken away from her.

She remembers screams, her own and her mother’s.  She remembers her father’s vain attempts to reassure them, Federico’s equally vain attempts to protect everyone, and Petruccio’s panicked fear.  She remembers watching her mother being brutalized by the guards.  She remembers the long, terrible wait, and the even more terrible news.

There was barely time for relief when Ezio reappeared, only to lead her and their silent mother from their violated home on the long and dangerous flight to Monteriggioni.  He was more protective than ever, but her last remaining brother was already a hard-eyed stranger. 

The Assassin town is safe, but it is gloomy in its disrepair, and Claudia’s first impression of the villa itself had been that of a crumbling gaol.  She hated it instantly.

Nor does she like it any better as time passes.  She complains bitterly about being made to manage the villa’s finances, but what else is there for her?  This is not Firenze, with its lively markets, handsome young lovers, or art and culture.  This is an aging tomb of a decrepit manor, and her only companions are her broken mother, her battle-rough uncle, and her usually-absent brother.

She envies Ezio his freedom and his newfound skills.  However much Claudia rages at what has been done to her family, she can never seek vengeance for it the way Ezio can. 

She does not even have any way of knowing whether he is all right when he disappears for weeks or months at a time.  As much as she might try to bury her fears, every time he leaves is an echo of that first long, terrible wait.  She prays daily with each new mission that Ezio’s absence will not also end with grim news.

And she works.  Balancing the books, managing the estate, directing the architect’s team, keeping the villa clean, tending her mother, cooking for her much-reduced family.

Because there is nothing else she can do.


End file.
